As Puducherry continued to report more than 600 new Covid cases on Wednesday, the administration decided to impose a lockdown from Friday night till Monday morning (April 26) in a bid to curb the spread of the viral infection.
A decision to this effect was taken during the high-level meeting chaired by LG (additional charge) Tamilisai Soundararajan at Raj Nivas on Tuesday night. From Monday, eateries will be permitted to function only till 2pm. Only takeaways will be permitted after 2pm while religious and other processions are banned.
As of 10am on Wednesday, the UT reported 619 cases and five deaths. Puducherry town topped the table reporting the maximum of 470 new infections. The town also accounts for 80% of the UT’s Covid toll of 722. The fatality rate stood at 1.5%, which is higher than the national average (1.2%).
The UT had 5,404 patients still under treatment as of Wednesday.The territory has so far reported 49,593 cases of which 43,467 patients recovered registering a recovery rate of 87.7%, which is higher than the national average (85%). The positivity rate of the samples (5,607) tested on Tuesday stood at 11%. On Tuesday, 1,077 people took the Covid-19 vaccine. So far, 1.74 lakh people have been vaccinated in Puducherry.